Emma at BBC Radio 2 with Cerys Mathews December 2023
Magazine front covers, BBC Radio 2, awards, tours, record releases – this past few year Emma has been prolific. In 2023 she released ‘Memphis Calling’ recorded in Sam Phillips studio in Memphis, USA, earlier this year she talked about her third album ‘A Spoonful of Willie Dixon’. Recently she got in touch about her latest single…
I’m stablemates with American band Chris Wyze and the Tellers. We’re both signed for distribution with ‘Select-O-Hits’ in Memphis. Chris found out I was in Tennessee for a few days in September so asked me to co-write and sing a duet with him. We recorded ‘Hearts Blue Christmas’ at Royal Studios in Memphis with the Hi Rhythm Section.
At the end of the recording session producer Boo Mitchell said ‘We have an hour left“. Chris turned to me and said ‘Do you want to do anything?’ I’ve previously recorded with pianist Charles Hodges (who is part of the Hi Rhythm Section) on my record ‘Memphis Calling’ and we have a good friendship and work well together.
I asked Charles if he knew the song “What are you doing New Years Eve”? The track was written by Frank Loesser in 1947. I think I must have first heard the Lena Horne’s 1966 version as my Mum played a lot of her music when I was little.
Charles strolled over and started playing it so beautifully on the grand piano. That piano has been in the same position at Royal studios for decades. Goodness knows how many iconic songs it has featured on!
Charles and I spent about ten minutes getting a key to suit and having a run through, then he called Steve Potts to play some lovely light drums and then we taped it.
L to R – Charles Hodges, Steve Potts, Hubbie Turner, Emma Wilson, BooMitchell, Lina Beach, Chris Wyze and Leroy Hodges at Royal Studio, Willie Mitchell Boulevard, Memphis on 25 September 2025.
Along with promoting the singlenowEmma is already looking forward to 2026…Recently I won the UK Blues Challenge at Marshall Studios which means I go to Memphis in January to represent the UK in the International Blues Challenge and for the European Blues Challenge I go to Poland.
‘What Are You Doing New Years Eve’ is out on 21st November 2025 as digital download and a very limited run of CDs which are available from the official website >>>
The title of this post is taken from the song and album by The Smiths released in 1985. In the title track songwriter and vocalist Morrisey delivers some powerful lyrics –
‘Kitchen aromas aren’t very homely. It’s not comforting, cheery or kind.
It’s sizzling blood and the unholy stench
Of murder
It’s not natural, normal or kind. The flesh you so fancifully fry
The meat in your mouth. As you savour the flavour
Of murder’.
In interviews Morrisey is outspoken about a number of topics including politics, royalty and animal rights.
‘Yes I’m aware of the song and Morrisey but I’m not a Smiths fan.’
saidSouth Shields born Anna who worked in education for 32 years and in a secondary school for over 20.
‘I was lucky to be able to leave my paid work a few years ago and now do this full time. No one day is the same, I can be in the middle of typing up an article when a call comes in and have to drop everything. I wouldn’t have it any other way as I feel fulfilled with my work – but wish we didn’t have to do it as that would mean a world where animals are not used.’
Anna set up North East Animal Rights who campaign and educate about veganism and animal rights. They have around 30 members with branches in Newcastle and Teesside.
‘It’s quite large for an independent regional Animal Rights group. Some of the group also volunteer for a local wildlife rescue. It’s hard to work out how much of a difference you actually make. But when you rescue an animal, that animal becomes the most important person in front of you and you know you definitely have made a difference.’
When did you become aware of how we treat animals?
‘I was 14 in a biology lesson in school when I was expected to dissect fertilised eggs with chickens at different stages of development. I was absolutely horrified seeing these dead baby chicks who had been deliberately bred and then killed. My parents were equally horrified when I told them I wanted to be vegetarian. I hadn’t even heard of veganism then and didn’t understand that I was still contributing to the suffering of cows and hens.’
‘I was already considered different in school before I went vegetarian so just made my school life a whole lot worse. I didn’t know what else I could do to help animals. Then I saw an article in a newspaper about people trying to stop a bull run in Spain. So, I sent a postcard and letter to the Mayor of Pamplona where the bull run takes place.’
What is the hardest part of being a vegan?
‘One of the hardest things is other people, the lifestyle is easy – it just becomes something which everyone seems to have an opinion on regardless of whether we want it or not. And families and close friends are the worst!’
‘It’s all water off a duck’s back now, but it’s amazing how many people suddenly become obsessed with your health when they didn’t care before you told them you are vegan!’
‘A lot of people think being vegan is just about the food, but it’s about so much more – it’s a whole lifestyle – and you look at things in a different light when you become vegan.’
‘You walk down a street you see adverts for meat – we see the process and the animal. You look forward to Christmas – we dread it because we see an increase in animal slaughter. You see an advert for a reindeer event and don’t flicker – we see captive animals who shouldn’t be there. You look forward to Easter and we see rabbits and chickens used. You see cute chicks in egg hatching programmes, we see and deal with what happens and the casual disregard for them.’
‘We got told to stop ‘forcing our views on others’ but others views are constantly forced on us in most aspects of our lives. You look forward to going on holiday, we do too, but we are always conscious of how vegans are perceived abroad and also have to deal with cultural issues where animals are used differently to in the UK.
‘For most of my adult life I thought being vegetarian was enough then I came across some graphic footage on TV and photos in a magazine of what happens in an average UK farm – I realised I was still part of the problem. I essentially went vegan overnight and signed up to Animal Aid’s November vegan pledge and never went back.’
What are the group currently working on?
‘We get a lot of contacts about animal related issues and it’s great to be able to help. We rely on the public quite a lot to be our eyes and ears.’
‘We get people asking about who to speak to about dog cruelty or breeding animals. They contact us in relation to mobile zoos in schools or about their vegan child in school. A lot of issues are those which the RSPCA should investigate but cannot always due to lack of resources and having to prioritise.’
‘At any one time we have two or three investigations going on. They are complex and time consuming but we learn a lot from them. One of the biggest pieces of ongoing work is the South Tyneside Councils Animal Protection Charter.’
‘This came about because of a local issue we had with camels being used in a Christmas parade along King Street, South Shields. It had been going for around 6 years. After meeting with the leadership we eventually convinced them to drop the camels in 2020.’
‘We continued working with them afterwards and created a charter which is available for use in other councils across the UK. The council do an amazing job promoting the work within it and really work hard to engage residents with local animal-related issues, like those around seabirds.’
What does the future hold for North East Animal Rights?
‘I speak at a variety of schools and events and this year I’ve been invited to speak at the National Animal Rights March in London and a local event in Saltburn. I don’t find public speaking easy but it’s easier when you are passionate about your subject.’
‘I’m a deputy co-ordinator for North East Animal Save who are a group who run vigils at slaughterhouses – yes, it is as grim as it sounds, but unfortunately while people continue to eat animals it’s a necessary part of our work.’
‘My work is very full on my poor husband sees me fleetingly most days but understands the importance of what I do and is very supportive – he’s also a member of NEAR.’
‘But I’m a positive person – rather than looking at how far we still have to go, I look at how far we have come. When I was a child I had no idea what being vegan meant but I know from going into schools not only do children know what it means now but there are also vegan children there – that’s progress.’
Following on from the success of her debut in 2022 ‘Wish Her Well’ and the highly acclaimed 2023 release ‘Memphis Calling’, which was recorded at Sam Phillips Recording Studios in Memphis, Teesside singer Emma Wilson releases her third album ‘A Spoonful of Willie Dixon’.
The recording is always a joyous experience and not like work at all said Emma if I could be in the studio every day of my life I would – well so long as I could gig in the evenings!
After recording Willies’ Hoochie Coochie Ma (ma) on ‘Memphis Calling’ – prompting pianist Archie ‘Hubbie’ Turner from the Hi-Rhythm Section to exclaim “She’s not from Middlesbrough, she’s from Mississippi!” Emma was inspired to sing more of Dixon’s songs and record them with her British band.
Even though I have a distribution deal with ‘Select-O-Hits’ and a great publicist in Frank Roszak, I do the rest of the work myself regarding the release of the record, such as PRS, PPL, coding, mastering and publishing which I have had to teach myself – I’m like my own record company.
Returning to her beloved Memphis in May 2024, Emma performed at the inaugural Riverbeat festival with The Bo-Keys – who’s bandleader Scott Bomar produced ‘Memphis Calling’.
The Riverbeat Festival in Memphis was amazing, it’s held right beside the Mississippi in Tom Lee Park, I felt so thrilled to be there, even checking into the backstage was an experience. I think I was the only British artist there, you become a bit of a novelty “Wow you’re from England!”
Everyone was very welcoming particularly the musicians I played with – Scott Bomar – who produced my album ‘Memphis Calling’. My pal Archie ‘Hubbie’ Turner who also played piano on ‘Memphis Calling’ and the wonderful Bo-Keys.
The stage was openair and even though the heat was sultry there was a cool breeze coming off the river giving it an even more cinematic atmosphere, everything felt sort of slowed down, or maybe that was me trying to take it all in or the ‘Purple Rain’ wine Hubbie gave me!
The audience was vast and I was buzzing to get on. In fact, when we did What Kind Of Love it lasted so long I think we played the 12 inch remix! I also got to watch all the other bands from the VIP area including The Fugees who were pretty spectacular.
Emma then drove down the Blues Highway to Clarksdale to sing at the legendary Ground Zero Club at the invitation of the Pinetop Perkins Foundation. Playing at Ground Zero the iconic club in Clarksdale, Mississippi – which is owned by Morgan Freeman – was a different experience again. It’s a super cool club seating around 300. I was invited to sing at the annual fundraiser the Pinetop Perkins Crawfish Boil.
I performed with the Pinetoppers – students from the Pinetop Perkins Foundation – they were fantastic, full of soul, groove and most of all blues. Backstage they asked so what do you want to play? got a key? got a groove?
Look out for Harrell ‘Young Rell’ Davenport, Danny ‘Guitarwood’ Garwood, Wyly Bigger and Six String Andrew, they really are the blues stars of the future.
We played five blues standards including House of the Rising Sun where I managed to get in a plug about being from the North East of England and mentioning The Animals.
The club itself is great, it looks like a really old vintage venue with cool graffiti on the walls, flags hanging from the ceiling and long wooden tables which the gorgeous waitresses seem to glide between serving beer and wings.
It’s a special place and I loved it. Everyone should go to Memphis and Clarksdale it’s easy just drive down the Blues Highway.
Emma & Hubbie Turner at Riverbeat Festival, Memphis.
You have a few UK gigs scheduled – anymore in the pipeline?
Yes, we have a lot in the UK and more coming in all the time, thanks to the new album release which has boosted our profile. We have a headline at the Texel Blues Festival in the Netherlands, I’m also going to Germany to do some guest spots and then back to USA to promote the record in September.
‘Good to the Last Drop’ 2025 UK tour dates >>>
Saturday 21 June ‘Blues & Soul Revue’ + Trevor Sewell & Lola-Rose, Hutton Rudby village hall, North Yorks. 7:30pm
Tuesday 24 June ‘Bletchley Blues Club’ special guest Terry Marshall (sax) Bletchley, Milton Keynes. 8pm
Sunday 13 July ‘Flying Circus’, Newark. 4pm
Tuesday 29 July ‘The 100 club’, London. 8pm + Thomas Heppell
Sunday 3 August ‘Tyne bar’, Newcastle 4pm
Saturday 9 August “Blues & Soul Revue” + Robin Bibi & Lola-rose Hutton Rudby village hall, North Yorks 7:30pm
Saturday 13 September ‘Flying Circus’ ‘Not the Newark Blues Fest’ 4pm
Friday 10th October Texel Blues Festival, Netherlands
Friday 17 October ‘Crawdaddy club’ The Turk’s Head, Twickenham 8pm
Sunday 7th December Looe Blues Festival, Plymouth
Thursday 18 December ‘Leeds blues club’ Christmas party.
The North East has become a home from home for 57 year old Bob Campbell. In a phone call he talked about his love of music and his contribution to the punk compilation record produced in support of Hunt Saboteurs.
I love punk. You know punk to me is urban folk music – music by the people for the people. You’d have people in rural areas singing about combine harvesters then you’d have punks singing about inner city decay, the music was full of energy. After first hearing it in 1977 – I thought that’s for me.
I was born on the Isle of Lewis and grew up in Perthshire, Scotland and came down to the North East to study at Sunderland Polytechnic in 1985. I worked in Gateshead and Blyth before finally ending up working here on Teesside since 1992. My wife is local to this area and my son was born here – yeh you could say I like the North East.
I’ve been taking my son to Rebellion Festival in Blackpool’s Winter Gardens since he was 9 year old – he’s now 28. He formed The Anti septics who played the festival twice. I took the band to a lot of their gigs where I was always down the front dancing. I’m 6 foot 5 with a mohawk hair cut and wear bright colours when everyone wears dark clothes. I stand out a bit! I don’t care what people think.
I started writing songs in the late 90s then during the covid lockdown I wrote over 300 and just wanted to give them a life. I couldn’t find people to sing them as they wanted to sing their own songs so I thought I’d do it myself. I went to a few folk clubs got some ideas and formed a band in October 2022. Last August the Gutter Folk played on the Rebellion Festival – it was like holy shit!
For years on the punk scene I’ve been friends with Julian Kynaston who is a huge supporter of Hunt Sabs. He set up a gig in September 2022 in Barnsley and got me to do two songs acapella – basically my first time on stage!
At that gig headlined by UK Subs, their frontman Charlie Harper said ‘Those people who kill foxes, just remember they’ll kill you without a fucking thought’. That quote really struck a chord with Julian and inspired him to put out the compilation album ‘Give the Fox a Gun’.
Back cover of the album with Charlie Harper quote.
We recorded a couple of songs about fox hunting. As I was a countryside ranger for 20 years I know a shit load about foxes and the lies told by the fox hunting fraternity so I can articulate that into the songs.
Julian Kynaston and Alan Walton produced the album which features bands including Gutter Folk from Middlesbrough, Darlington’s In Evil Hour, Burning Flag from Halifax and punk royalty Angelic Upstarts from South Shields who contribute with their anti-hunt track ‘Give the Fox a Gun’.
Countryside wildlife was my profession for 20 years, I was a ranger around the Tees Valley so I know a lot about fox habits. Foxes are incredibly clever and smart essentially they are scavengers they would rather find something already dead than hunt for food.
When they are being hunted they will take to ground and some hunts dig them out. They’ll climb trees and follow streams so as not to leave a scent.
When sheep are worried, they huddle into a pack which is their defence mechanism. The fox will go into the middle of a flock of sheep who aren’t bothered about the fox. When the hunting dogs come along the sheep huddle tightly keeping the fox safe from the dogs.
The hunt say what they do is pest control but really they don’t catch enough to make a difference on numbers and they say it’s only the sick or old animals they hunt. It’s absolute lies. They breed and release foxes in areas they don’t know, they are completely lost so it’s an easier hunt for them.
One time they were importing foxes from France – that’s not pest control. No, the only reason they do it is for rich people to see a living animal torn to shreds in front of their eyes.
Why would they want to introduce the killing of defenceless animals to their children? They smear their kid’s faces with the fox’s blood that’s just been murdered in front of them. Hunters try to justify it as a kind way to go….no the animals are just scared, terrified.
Do you know fox hunters will pay men to protect the hunt and beat up the Sabs? Thing is fox hunting is illegal. It’s madness when you think that they are paying people to beat up people who are on the right side of the law. What we’ve had for many years is Hunt Sabs trying to break up and disturb the fox hunt – the fight goes on.
The Hunt Sabs are aiming to raise money to go towards buying equipment like a vehicle or drones to help their work. All takings from the album go toward supporting the Hunt Sabs – 90% Sheffield Hunt Sabs & 10% Gabo Wildlife.
To buy the 13 track compilation album on red vinyl contact the official website >>> www.givethefoxagun.com
So far this year Emma ‘Velvet Tones of Teesside’ Wilson has clocked up a lotta miles on the gigometer and this autumn adds a few more…
“It’s been great to see some of you on the road. I’m now looking for gigs in Europe and have just confirmed a date in Germany performing with the Milwaukee Band on 7th December 2024 at Messajero in Monchengladbach, Dusseldorf”.
Are you performing at any venues you haven’t played?
“There’s Diseworth Blues Club in Derby I’m really looking forward to. It’s a brilliant club run by Blues Enthusiasts. It’s these small clubs that are keeping the Blues scene alive in the UK”.
After releasing your latest album last year what has the feedback been like?
“I’m so delighted that a year after the release of ‘Memphis Calling’ it’s still being reviewed and played all over the world”.
“In May I was featured in the iconic Italian Music Magazine ‘Buscadero’, and all the songs are still being played on International Radio stations and hitting the rhythm and blues charts”
“The stand out song has to be ‘What Kind of Love’. The song written by and featuring Don Bryant has been in the top 10 iTunes blues in about 50 countries!”
Emma recently guested on an album by German band Milwaukee Music where she displays a softer jazzy side of her voice. Olaf Rappe of the band thanked Emma for her contribution.
“Milwaukee and Friends – Crossing Borders’ is twenty good friends making a special album. I’m very happy to have the wonderful Emma Wilson, the British soul and blues queen, as lead singer on two songs ‘Midnight in Harlem’ and ‘Rio de Janeiro Blue”.
Have you found time for a break this year?
“I went to the South of France in May and laid on the beach for a week. But all I could think about was music, music, music!”
Catch Emma on these confirmed dates >
Acoustic set Saturday 14 September at Claypath Deli, Durham
Seated gig on Saturday 12 October at Hutton Rudby Village Hall, North Yorkshire from 7 -11pm. Also on the bill are North East Blues Legend George Shovlin & UK Americana star Lola-Rose.
“I’ve always been fascinated with everything World War Two related and RAF in particular. My grandfather was in the Royal Flying Corps, and both my father and my son were in the RAF” explained Terry.
“I was in the Air Training Corps in South Shields but then a medic came to school to test us all for colour-blindness. I failed the test miserably and was told I would never be accepted by the RAF. I was gutted, as you can imagine”.
Terry lives in Marske on Teesside, but was born in South Shields at midnight 21st– 22nd December 1948…“My mum asked the midwife which day was my birthday. She was told it was the 21st as my head came out on that day. That crosses the Winter Solstice, so my top half is Sagittarius and my bottom half Capricorn. I think this explains why I’ve done so many different jobs in my life”joked Terry.
Throughout his school years his parents moved around the country…
”We lived above a wallpaper shop in Stockton on Tees, then moved to Billingham and later down south to Reading and Mitcham”.
Finally, the Wilkinson family moved back to South Shields where Terry was a pupil at South Shields Grammar Technical School for Boys.
“After leaving school, I worked for the Crown Agents for Overseas Governments in London, thenWise Speke stockbrokers in Newcastle where I became a Member of the London Stock Exchange”.
“From 2000 I ran a successful Theatre in Education company touring schools for 15 years. It won a Best New Business Award but I gave it up in 2015 in order to write”.
When researching his family tree and local history Terry has always been fascinated by one event.
“At midnight on 3 May 1941, the factory and Head Office of Wilkinson’s Mineral Water Manufacturers in North Shields was hit by a single German bomb. It went through the roof, descending through all three floors, taking all the heavy bottling machinery and chemicals down to the basement – which was in use as a public air raid shelter. 107 died, 43 of which were children. Whole families were wiped out.”
“It is written by my good friend, Peter Bolger, who also manages a comprehensive website on the incident”>www.northshields173.org
“Because of censorship and the government’s desire not to damage public morale, little is known beyond Tyneside. It was, however, one of the largest loss of life incidents from a single bomb during the provincial Blitz”.
“Nothing is known of the identity of the plane which dropped the bomb – type, squadron, mission etc – as German records were mostly destroyed in the closing stages of the war”.
“I wanted to write a story that answered all these questions and create a fictional alternative. Having said that, nobody could say with any conviction this is not what happened”.
Terry started on a series of five espionage novels. ‘Handler’ is set in 1941, ‘Sleeper’ in 1942 and is currently working on the third ‘Chancer’ which covers 1943.
“They’re a mix of fact and fiction and trace through the war years of an English-born German spy, Howard Wesley, and his nemesis, MI5 agent Albert Stokes”.
“Wesley is a figment of my imagination. Stokes is based on a real character. And this is the pattern for the other books in the series. I also like to plunder WW2 history for little-known incidents and people who feature against the broader background of what was taking place in the war”.
‘Handler’ won a ‘Chill With A Book’ Premier Readers’ Award just a few months after publication. This spurred Terry on to get others in the series out there as quickly as possible.
“A few of those who have given good feedback have made the point that it would make a good series. I am convinced that it would. I certainly write with a film or TV series in mind”.
“In the shorter term I am hoping to record the whole series as audible books. I recorded an extract from the book that author John Orton is currently writing (link to interview below) and he was happy with it”.
“I’ve spoken to my publisher – UK Book Publishing – and offered them my services as a narrator for others. I’m also an actor, card-holding Equity member and very good at accents and dialects”.
Robert Plant, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan and Jerry Lee Lewis are just a few names that have recorded in Sam Phillips Studio in Memphis, USA – a new name to be added to that impressive list is Teesside Rhythm & Blues Singer & Songwriter Emma Wilson…….
“Sam Phillips studio breathes, it has an immense presence. The Phillips family have kept the rooms the same. The live room is awesome, huge, beautifully designed, it took me everything to hold it together. I let my emotions out on the recording”.
Her second album Memphis Calling, scheduled for an October release, with first single What Kind Of Love released on Friday 1st September 2023.
What Kind Of Love was co-written by legendary singer and songwriter Don Bryant (Hi Records) and Scott Bomar, who also produces the album.
“Don Bryant collaborated with his then wife, my idol Ann Peebles, on many huge songs such as the iconic ‘I Can’t Stand The Rain’. For him to offer me one of his songs and then join me in singing was a dream come true…he is so vibrant and such a great singer!” explained Emma.
“When I asked him how he thought I should perform the song he took hold of my two hands and said “Just sing it honey”.
“The band on ‘Memphis Calling’ are spectacular we have members of the HI Rhythm section Leroy Hodges bass, Charles Hodges organ, Hubbie Turner piano, the greatest drummer in the world Steve Potts and young Memphian cats Joe Restivo guitars, Kirk Smothers saxes and Marc Franklin trumpet”.
“Scott Bomar produced the record and is one of the greatest, he restored the STAX desk that we recorded through, it was just a beautiful experience”.
Emma won 2022s Emerging Blues Artist of The Year in the UK Blues Awards, her debut album Wish Her Well, made the finalist in Blues Album of The Year category in UK Blues Awards 2023.
Yorkshire born Chris has authored eleven books, collaborated on two others, contributed to newspapers and magazines and written promotional material for local and international musicians.
Two of his books highlighted here are Boys in the Bands: Teesside’s Groups 1960-70 and Backstage Pass: Redcar Jazz Club.
“I felt those 1960s needed to be documented, the musical history needs preserving because once it’s gone, it’ll be lost forever”said Chris.
Saltburn born International rock star David Coverdale (Deep Purple/Whitesnake) added…
“Christopher Wilson has written and collated a genuinely touching and refreshing stroll down Memory Lane with this fabulous book.
It opens so many joy filled memories of evenings spent in the breath taking company of the original Fleetwood Mac, The Who, Joe Cocker… many of whom I had the extraordinary pleasure of opening for when I was in local bands. A must have and a must read”.
What inspired you to research and put the books together ?
After writing five westerns, five local history books and a couple of historical fiction books, I wrote a piece about the band Cream in response to a request from an Australian website called Those Were The Days.
Also, two photographers who had covered Redcar Jazz Club were interested, one of them, Dennis Weller, read my piece on Cream and contacted me and proposed working together.
My initial interest in the Redcar Jazz club was ignited one night in 1966 when I sneaked in to watch a band I’d never heard of, they were billed as The Cream. That night changed my life.
I’d seen many acts at the Jazz Club so I set out to create a book I wanted to read, incorporating the club’s story, a full timeline of dates, what the headliners and support acts got paid, photographs, vignettes of the artists and ticket buyers – as many quotes as I could get.
For the designer I had a few ideas about layout and mocked up a few pages to help explain what sort of format we wanted. It was very primitive, I was flying by the seat of my pants. Eventually it was pasted up for the printer and became Backstage Pass : Redcar Jazz Club.
After publication, a big surprise was an unsolicited email out of the blue from Ed Bicknell who managed Dire Straits, Gerry Rafferty, Bryan Ferry and Scott Walker among others, and his email was headed FOREWORD (for the next edition). That in itself was proof he liked the book enough to have his name on it.
In Boys in the Band I look at the 1960’s where many pubs and workingmen’s clubs provided venues for bands who played most nights, a day off was a luxury.
Most musicians were content in earning an extra few quid on their day job and having a laugh – others were more ambitious wanting to take it further. But they all started on Teesside honing their musical chops.
Chris drew on his experience as a drummer in the 1960s playing for local bands…
Yes I started playing drums in a band at school then switched to guitar, but after seeing Hendrix live at the Kirklevington Country Club and Cream twice I went back to playing drums and The Wheel played all over Teesside and North Yorkshire and as far south as Birmingham, we also played Annabel’s in Sunderland, the Quay Club in Newcastle and up to Ashington.
Late 60s early 70s I was in Candy Factory a professional club band who played workingmen’s clubs, including the infamous Downhill Social in Sunderland. Also the Bailey nightclub circuit including Change Is and La Dolce Vita in Newcastle, Latinos in South Shields and Wetherells in Sunderland when John Miles and Toby Twirl were on the circuit.
We were offered work in South Africa and France but it didn’t feel right.
With a couple of line-up changes Candy Factory morphed into Pretty Like Me with a less friendly club repertoire and we were working from the Mayfair in Newcastle down to London, and picking up university gigs. But the mid-week gig staples were always those kids’ nights in the County Durham clubs when you could play heavy stuff.
The mantra there was always, “Can you play The ‘unter or Born To be Wild?” Didn’t matter what else we played, we always played those.
Did you record any of your songs ?
We did cut a couple of demos of self-penned material. First was in a studio in a basement in Newcastle and another in Redcar, but we weren’t satisfied with them. They never seemed to capture what we thought we had.
No cassettes then or CDs to bombard A&R guys with, we got a few expensive acetates which all seem to have disappeared now.
When the band later imploded I had to get a ‘proper job’ and working shifts in heavy industry, albeit mostly in laboratories, not conducive to a musical lifestyle. With not playing I needed a creative output and started writing, short stories at first, then books.
Where you surprised about the feedback for Backstage Pass and Boys in the Bands ?
I worried how many people were interested enough to buy a copy of Backstage Pass. In fact I was astonished at how well received it was. There is something to be said for timing, maybe we hit the right moment – after seven years it’s still selling.
It was launched at Kirkleatham Old Hall Museum and the photographers – Dennis Weller, Graham Lowe and I did signing sessions at bookshops.
That book had been built around the photographs, which were extraordinary, but there were no images of the support bands except one, who had been personal friends of Graham. I insisted on including a few pages explaining who the support acts were and including them on the gig timeline.
After Backstage Pass was published, several local musicians hinted there had never been anything produced specifically about them, and although many of them had settled for a steady working lifestyle, their playing years, often only a handful, had been a big part of their lives – a big adventure.
I felt exactly like them. I had told stories of how it was – both the good and the bad, and the more I thought about it, more memories came back.
I wanted to kick-start their memories too. Since Boys In The Bands has been released…well the comments from local musicians on my website reveal what they thought of it.
What are you working on now ?
I’m putting together a book about the Redcar Coatham Bowl which was open 1973 – 2014.Information and gig records are patchy, especially support bands, I think it’s important to include local musicians who worked just as hard as the headliners, and for a lot less.
At present I’m trying to confirm dates – and as a support bands’ name get mentioned I’m trying to contact them to confirm they played, and if they played other dates in the Bowl as yet unrecorded.
This becomes especially difficult when bands are long disbanded and don’t maintain social media pages or websites.
If you have any information that will help Chris in his research or would like to buy his books contact him at his official website:http://www.chrisscottwilson.co.uk
I’ve known Mat Hector (drums, Iggy Pop) for about four years, he used to come and play when he was off the road and I had a monthly residency at The Monarch in Camden.
He introduced me to Mark Neary (bass, Noel Gallagher) and Terry Lewis (guitar, Mamas Gun) who are both super guys and ace players. Mark and Mat are great as a rhythm section and Terry is such a great guitarist, I’m so looking forward to the gig.
I also have Robert Hokum guesting for a few numbers on guitar and vocals, he is a tremendous Blues musician and the curator of the Ealing Blues Festival.
Have you played the Crawdaddy before ?
Yes as a guest with other bands and then had my own gig there in 2019 where I invited Pete Brown (lyricist, singer, percussionist, Cream) to join in. He was amazing and sang all the Cream classics, we also did a few duets, he’s a great mentor of mine.
So since then Mike Rivers, promoter of the Crawdaddy, has been saying “You must come back” and here we are, this is the venues first gig post lockdown so I’m hoping it will be a lot of fun.
Wilson’s latest record is a duet with British vocalist Terry ‘superlungs’ Reid (famously turned down the Led Zep job and recommended his mate Robert Plant). The double A side received European and Stateside airplay plus a 4 star review.
After the nomination for the UK Blues Award, DJs who weren’t aware of me before have looked me up, been in touch and played the tracks. So far it’s been heard in Atlanta Georgia, New York, Germany and Holland plus all over the UK, with the Independent Blues Broadcasters playing both tracks a lot.
It’s really exciting to hear the songs in the context of a radio show up against big hitters like Van Morrison and The Stones, musicians who are contemporaries of Terry. I think Terry’s involvement has definitely created a buzz, he is still absolutely on fire musically and gives me such spirit to create.
With his brilliant playing, singing and production the tracks sound really punchy and what’s cool is most DJ’s play one of the tracks one week and the other the next. They are very different but compliment each other well.
‘See You in the Morning’ is a vocal duet with Terry and it seems to have really tugged at the heartstrings of a lot of people, Andy Snipper of Music News.com said “it has shades of Brief Encounter”.
‘Nuthin’ is more driving with much more angst and described by Dennis Roberts legendary Soul & Blues Broadcaster as “Gritty and powerful with echoes of Howlin’ Wolf”.
The tracks are still very much alive and I’m being approached daily for copies and interviews. I try to personally contact everyone, DJs, Journalists, fans. We need them to keep the vibe going and I never take for granted people enjoying my music.
Music is so personal, it’s really an honour if someone else responds to your song by buying it or playing it.
Are you looking forward to getting on stage again ?
Absolutely – I have my mic and outfit ready, and that never happens, I usually grab it on the day. I’m looking forward to that surge of energy that is unique to being on stage.
ALIKIVI : NORTH EAST UK CULTURE 